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Today’s Teamster News For September 22, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Boycott Schnucks: Stand with St. Louis Teamsters Teamster.org …Members of Local 688 in St. Louis are in the fight of their working lives with Schnucks market chain. The long-running struggle all began in April, when the company announced it planned to outsource distribution to a non-union provider, XPO Logistics. On July 31, Schnucks fired more than 50 Teamsters and began moving products to the new warehouse for distribution…
Teamsters Mounting Campaign to Organize Drivers at XPO Logistics Wall Street Journal …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is mounting a campaign to organize truckers driving for XPO Logistics Inc., opening a new front in the union’s push to revive its influence in the trucking industry. Last week, the Teamsters announced that drivers for XPO Logistics Inc. in Aurora, Ill. and workers at XPO’s warehouse in North Haven, Conn. had filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to seek union representation…
Local 25 Supports HUDS Workers The Crimson …In the event of a strike, members of Teamsters Local 25 will honor and support the dining workers’ picket lines. Each day, Local 25 members deliver parcels, freight, equipment, and perishables and pick up trash at Harvard University and its dining halls. The services Teamsters provide, although not directly involved with dining services, education or research, are an important element of ensuring that University runs smoothly…
Teamsters Local 700 Continues to Fight for Lake County Correctional Officers PR Newswire …Lake County correctional officers are being forced to work overtime, enduring 16-hour shifts – more than once a week in some cases – causing yet another safety concern at the jail. “Sheriff Curran and his jail administration are mandating the forced overtime because the jail is understaffed and has been for years,” said Becky Strzechowski, Teamsters Local 700 President…
Teamsters, Legislators Get Peek At Sikorsky’s Plan To Stay Put In Stratford Daily Voice …Members of Teamsters Local 1150 got their first peek at a plan to keep Sikorsky Aircraft headquarters in Stratford Wednesday, a proposal that could go before a special session of the state legislature as early as Sept. 28. Asked if Sikorsky would leave the state if the plan does not go through, Gov. Dannel Malloy said the plan’s failure is not an option…
Strip District packaging plant to close, cutting 51 jobs Post-Gazette …Packaging Corporation of America will permanently close its 28th Street plant later this year, putting 51 employees out of work. The Lake Forest, Ill., company told the state Department of Labor and Industry that it expects to begin laying off employees on Nov. 11. Union members at the plant are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Steelworkers union…
Local 710 Delivery Drivers at Rex Radiator Ratify New Contract Local 710 …Teamsters Local 710 drivers at Rex Radiator recently ratified a new five-year agreement, retroactive to April 1, 2013. Local 710 members secured a wage increase of $2.05 per hour as of August 1, 2016, and another increase of 75 cents per hour that will go into effect August 1, 2017. Each member also received a substantial $1,000 signing bonus…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Bank Workers in Brazil Enter 16th Day of Strike Rio Times …A nationwide bank strike in Brazil entered its sixteenth day on Thursday, with no end to the negotiations in sight. With almost 14,000 branches and forty administrative centers closed, strikers are determined to hold out for their demands, leaving the population to conduct their financial transactions through the Internet or lottery houses…
Kenya: Health Workers in Meru Set to Strike Over Delayed Promotions All Africa …Health workers in Meru have issued a two-week strike notice citing failure by the county government to promote them. Addressing the media in Meru Town on Thursday, officials of the Kenya National Union of Nurses said they will down their tools on October 5, 2016 if their demands are not met. A strike notice by Knun general secretary Seth Panyako states that the health workers are open to dialogue with the county executive until October 4, 2016…
Biden sees ‘less than even chance’ of U.S. Congress approving TPP deal Reuters …Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he sees a “less than even chance” that the U.S. Congress approves the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact before the next administration takes office in January. Biden, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said that the brief “lame duck” session of Congress after the Nov. 8 presidential election was “our only real shot” for approving TPP…
Barack Obama optimistic about TPP but plenty of sceptics too, Malcolm Turnbull says Financial Review …US President Barack Obama says he is optimistic Congress will ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact later this year, despite growing signs this is becoming increasingly unlikely. Mr Obama expressed his optimism to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during talks on Thursday. Mr Turnbull will be in Washington on Friday, advocating for the 12-nation regional free trade pact…
Top House Democrat: No TPP Vote In Lame-Duck Congress Huffington Post …House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) can be added to the growing list of congressional leaders who insist there will not be a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership during the session of Congress after the November election. “It’s not gonna come to a vote,” the second-highest ranking House Democrat said in a video interview on Wednesday…
G.M. Job Shift From Mexico Tests a Trump Premise New York Times …For workers in Canada and Mexico, the impacts were evident. They had to satisfy the demands of auto manufacturers locked in an increasingly global competition. They had to make concessions. Otherwise, the car companies could employ their demonstrated power to leave them behind, moving the work to places where labor was cheaper and more pliable…
OECD Says Governments Cut Taxes to Boost Growth in 2015 Wall Street Journal …Governments stopped raising taxes in an effort to narrow budget deficits in 2015 and switched to targeted tax cuts designed to support economic growth, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Thursday. The change in emphasis is another sign that governments in developed economies are moving away from the budget policies that characterized the years following the 2008 financial crisis…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana sue to block overtime pay expansion WLWT …Officials from 21 states sued the U.S. Department of Labor Tuesday over a new rule that would make about 4 million higher-earning workers eligible for overtime pay, slamming the measure as inappropriate federal overreach by the Obama Administration. Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, a Republican, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas…
Minimum-Wage Rift May Lead to Competing Pay Scales at New York Area’s Airports New York Times …The governors of New York and New Jersey have staked out such starkly different positions on the minimum wage that their discord could result in uneven pay scales for thousands of workers at the airports that serve New York City. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat, has fully embraced a union-backed campaign for a $15 minimum wage…
Michigan Leads Nation in Denying Child Care to Low-Income Families Truthout …Lawmakers in Michigan are about to walk away from $20.5 million in federal funding for child care because they won’t commit to spending $7.5 million in state money to help working families. Michigan has the disappointing distinction of being the state that returns the most unused federal funding dollars every year…
Texas’s Refusal of Refugees The Atlantic …Texas Governor Greg Abbott has threatened to withdraw his state from the federal refugee-resettlement program, escalating the clash between Republican-led states and the Obama administration over the relocation of refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war. State officials on Wednesday formally notified the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement of its intent to withdraw..
‘Fair scheduling’ bill dies in D.C. Council Washington Post …Legislation intended to give hourly employees more predictable work schedules effectively died Tuesday before the D.C. Council, with lawmakers saying that they were hesitant to pile too many costs onto employers in a single year. The D.C. Council voted 9 to 4 to table the bill, leaving little chance that lawmakers would reach a final decision this session…
Creating A Fair Workweek For New Yorkers (opinion) Huffington Post …Four years ago, a small group of courageous New York City fast-food workers walked off the job and sparked what grew into the international fight for $15 — a fight that was won earlier this year in our state. Today, we are proud to stand with Flavia and fast-food workers to create change…
U.S. LABOR
United Steel Workers Union says Clarksburg company owes locked out workers thousands in back wages MetroNews …The United Steel Workers Union claims that Europtec USA now owes more than $200,000 in back pay to the 29 workers they “illegally locked out” ten weeks ago. The Union has cited a favorable National Labor Relations Board ruling at the end of August, claiming the company violated federal labor laws when they failed to notify workers in advance of the impending lockout…
Southwest Union Leaders Send Contract to Pilots for Vote Bloomberg …Leaders of Southwest Airlines Co.’s pilots union agreed to send a tentative contract agreement to its members, clearing the way for a vote on the deal that would boost pay and retirement benefits. The Southwest Airlines Pilots’ Association board voted 21-2 to authorize balloting, union President Jon Weaks said in an interview Wednesday. The board did not recommend approval or rejection of the contract…
State System requests fact-finding in contract stalemate Post-Gazette …For up to 40 days, any potential strike by faculty at Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities would be placed on hold. Even so, State System of Higher Education officials say it’s not why they have asked the state’s Labor Relations Board to conduct fact-finding involving their 15-month-old contract dispute with the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties…
US Capitol workers want their voices heard over wage theft The Hill …Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that U.S. Senate federal contract workers had been robbed of over $1 million dollars from our paychecks by our employer, Compass Group. DOL found that Compass had been paying us less than the legal rates for our jobs, had not being paying us proper overtime or even for all the hours we worked, and had not kept proper payroll records…
Immigrants Aren’t Taking Americans’ Jobs, New Study Finds New York Times …Do immigrants take jobs from Americans and lower their wages by working for less? The answer, according to a report published on Wednesday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, is no, immigrants do not take American jobs — but with some caveats. The question is at the heart of the furious debate over immigration that has divided the country and polarized the presidential race…
Older workers and the search for “good” jobs CBS …Working longer is becoming the go-to retirement plan for millions of older Americans who report they expect to keep working well into their retirement years. Many say they need the money and benefits, and most likely they’re right. But how many older workers are working at “good” jobs, compared with those who are desperately holding on for purely financial reasons?…
Evidence suggests employers can make a simple fix to help close the gender wage gap Business Insider …Make no mistake, the gender wage gap is real. For every $1 a man earns, a woman working full-time in the same field tends to earn just $0.79. But as Sarah Kliff recently explained for Vox, that statistic represents a symptom of a much larger problem…
Autonomous Starship Robot Makes First Delivery in San Francisco Transport Topics …Starship’s “friendly sidewalk robots” are designed to deliver parcels, groceries and other goods within a 2-mile radius, the company said, operating as a local on-demand service, rather than competing with the likes of FedEx and UPS. FedEx ranks No. 2 and UPS ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Protesters, Police Clash After Fatal Police Shooting in Charlotte, NC Common Dreams …Protests erupted late Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina after police officer fatally shot a black man while attempting to serve a warrant on a separate individual. The demonstrators clashed with police in riot gear, several people were injured, and five protesters were ultimately arrested, the New York Times reports. The Los Angeles Times writes that tear gas was used by police…
The hard truth about Terence Crutcher and Tulsa: What kind of white person do you want to be? Salon …If America were a song, the killing of unarmed black people by the police would be a standard chord progression or rhythm, the sort of indistinguishable background noise that you hear so often you might not even notice it anymore. On Friday, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a 40-year-old black man named Terence Crutcher had car troubles. The police approached him. Crutcher responded by putting his hands in the air. A Tulsa police officer, Betty Shelby, then shot him dead…
Colin Kaepernick on Terence Crutcher and ‘Racism Disguised as Patriotism’ The Nation …In recent weeks, everyone from Beltway pundits to the online bigot brigade have tried to turn Colin Kaepernick into a caricature. He’s been reduced to his afro, his socks, or a T-shirt he wore depicting Malcolm X and Fidel Castro. By turning him into a joke, his opposition hopes they won’t have to reckon with the substance of his message or the fact that the protests are spreading…
Trump Campaign Paid Trump’s Companies Over $500,000 In August Huffington Post …Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign paid more than $500,000 in August to companies the brash businessman owns, according to campaign finance reports released late Tuesday. The chief beneficiaries were Trump’s aviation company and his office headquarters in Manhattan. TAG Air was paid nearly $320,000 for operating the campaign jet and Trump Tower collected nearly $170,000 in rent for the month of August…
Low-income families face eviction as building ‘rebrands’ for Facebook workers The Guardian …Housing advocates say that throughout Silicon Valley, where income inequality is on the rise, real estate investors are increasingly purchasing centrally located apartments, remodeling them, removing low-income tenants en masse, and replacing them with wealthy tech workers. In many cases, the “house flipping” is entirely legal and occurs with little objection from local officials…